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Single review: Perfume - Spending all my time

Perfume have never been a group who you would say takes risks. But a risk is exactly what Hiroshima hailing robohoes have taken with their 16th major label single release "Spending all my time". What we get here are three songs which all show different facets of Perfume and their sound. An objective was clearly set with this single release and for all the controversy surrounding it, "Spending all my time" succeeds. Albeit on a level which may have you waver on how much so.

"Spending all my time" is a rapid departure for Perfume. Being their first and only song which sounds as though it has clearly been influenced by current pop chart affairs. Perfume's gambit has always been that Nakata always gives them the goods and that their songs strike a chord with pop listeners without sounding clearly derivative. This all changes with "Spending all my time", which sounds like a dozen other songs you've probably heard on the radio over the past 2 years. Japan seems to be overcome with the need to throw shit loads of English in their songs. Something I'd like to think Namie 'Queen of Okinawa' Amuro is responsible for as a result of Uncontrolled. 90% of the song is sung entirely in English. It's only 10 words in English repeated over and over, but it's still English. This has rubbed fans the wrong way and had them throw constant wobblies that Nakata was selling Perfume out for the sake of Western appeal and that it flew completely in the face of what Universal said they would not do to Perfume following their departure from their last record label Tokuma communications. But what everybody seemed to be completely missing was that "Spending all my time" was still a good song. Yes, it's derivative. It sounds like a watered down version of Neon Hitch's "F**k you better" with a similar intro as Wynter Gordon's "Dirty talk". But when you play it through, you find yourself singing along to it and rocking to the beat, which goes pretty damn hard. It's absolutely impossible to resist moving to this song. And fans also forget that this is one of three songs on the single release, so if you don't like this. So what!? You've got two other songs waiting in the wings for you. I had / have no issues this song. I think it's hot to death.

"Point" is another slight departure for Perfume, with Nakata throwing in a bit of Drum & bass smashed with lashing of cutesy Summer pop. It's not a song which jumps out and grabs you at first, but it does grow on you. It's not your typical sounding Perfume song, but it does feel like one of several directions Nakata could shift the girls into with their sound. All of the 3 songs on the single "Point" is the one which leaves less of an impression. But it's the most well rounded and structured song of the lot and as is often the case with anything Nakata does, the production is is absolutely on point. Excuse the pun.

Perfume's dick anthem "Hulry burly" ♪ Juicy juicy sweety! ♪ is the song Perfume fans will be drawn to. Ever since this was previewed in that canned piss commercial, we'd all been waiting on this song like crack fiend. The synth lines, bass lines and Nakata's complete chopping of the beat post bridge are the things dreams are made of. And switch of the melody on the first main run of the chorus was a nice surprise I didn't expect to come so early in the song. It did take a few listens of "Hurly burly" for me to love it completely though, as the structure didn't sit well with me initially. It sounded so cut and pasted. But there was no denying that synth / bass line. And after constant plays, my life has been snatched. I still hope that Nakata reworks the structure a little for the album version though, just to make it even tighter.

Spending all my time is an experimental single for Perfume and feels like a testing ground for Nakata seeing what sticks. "Spending all my time" is unlike anything the girls have ever done before. "Point" feels like a progression of the Perfume sound we know and love and "Hurly burly" feels like a complete throwback to the sound of Perfume's Game. But I'm beginning to feel as though the lines between Nakata's works are blurring. His Capsule works, his Perfume works and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu works are all beginning to merge. It's natural given he's one man with a very distinctive sound which each of his acts are shaped very much by. But recently his works have begun to draw comparisons. Fans calling out "Communication" for sounding like a Pamyu Pamyu track. "Spending all my time" sounding like a Capsule joint. And "Hurly burly" featuring the same bass line as Pamyu Pamyu's "PONPONPON" and a set of lyrics from "CANDY CANDY". Nakata needs to be careful not to bastardize the sounds of his acts at the risk of making it seem as though he's just giving them all the same stuff or one another's left overs. Especially in the wake of JPN, where fans already began to express concern over Perfume's sound moving away from ⊿. But at the same time fans also need to allow Perfume to experiment and try new things, which is exactly what Nakata and the girls have done with this single release and this is something which I'm glad had happened.

Spending all my time is a strong single, and each song sounds so different from one another that fans are bound to like at least one of them. But I am torn as to whether it may have been better to have release the songs separately and given them each a strong visual, rather than package them all together. Perfume have always been known for their strong visual representations of their singles and this is often what helps sell them. Yet, two great songs on this release have the gloomy docile shadow and controversy of "Spending all my time" cast over them, which doesn't help despite the songs themselves being so good and speaking for themselves. "Point" and "Hurly burly" act as damage control for "Spending all my time", I get that. But part of me wishes Universal had been firm and obnoxious and just put out "Spending all my time" on its own and allowed "Point" and "Hurly burly" to be put out as a double A-side.

As strong as this single release is, the songs themselves don't have the lasting appeal of their earlier singles. This causes some concerns for me as I felt the same way about "Spring of life". Which is that whilst the song is great, I don't know whether I'll still be playing it a few months from now. I still play some of Game, ⊿ and JPN's singles to this day. I don't know if I could say the same for any of the singles featured on this release...even the Summer crack that is "Hurly burly". But we'll see.